Some things never change
by The Fifty
Summary: As a maintenance worker on the Pursuit of Knowledge Caleb's life can change in an instant. He could be moved to a new sector, a meteorite could destroy part of the station, the station itself could fall out of orbit, or god forbid he could lose his ID card. But when his life is thrown into chaos he must hold onto what he can and hope that some things really don't change. AvP not me
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Sleep...life's reset button. The best part of every day. It's hard to think what life would be witho-

BEEP! BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP!

"...fuck"

Morning have never been Caleb's thing. He simply couldn't spring out of bed every morning like other people, his bed didn't help either. Aboard the space station, Pursuit of Knowledge, orbiting an unnamed planet, all tier 1 personnel get access to the luxury apartments. 120 square feet of convenience and relaxation with a full kitchen, jacuzzi, and the best part...full size master bed. It was like sleeping on a cloud, a cloud that contours to your body, adjusts temperature, and best of all-

BEEP! BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP!

"FUCK YOU ALARM CLOCK!" Caleb yelled. He slammed on the snooze button again.

A small hologram winked into existence. "Oh no", caleb mumbled, "not this bitc-"

"Good morning Miss Masalym", a small figure in the hologram said, "or should I say Mr. Spearman, Sahara's mooching boyfriend who should be thrown in the stockades for using the Tier 1 living quarters."

"Jessica", Caleb started.

"I mean seriously", Jessica ranted, "a verbal affirmation is not enough to facilitate Tier 5 personnel using the premium quarters!"

"Jessica!" Caleb yelled, "English would be great, thanks."

"Oh I'm soooo sorry, let me speak so you can understand, I forgot I was talking to a janitor" Caleb smirked and said, "and a great one at that"

"Anyway, you shouldn't be allowed to live in this room, but that's not up to me." Caleb began to go through his morning routine as she talked, "so Caleb, you're being tasked with cleaning sector 5 of D-Block, apparently the system registered a buildup of something in the vents, probably a leaking waste pipe, I hope you get covered in shit." Caleb started to walk out the door.

"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine," Caleb chuckled as he shut the door, "See ya later sweat cheeks" he shut the door before she could say anything, "Hmm, D-Block...that's in the deep storage area. And pretty close to where Sarah works!" He took out his com unit and sent her a quick message asking if she would like to meet up for lunch because he was working so close to her.

As he looked up from his text he saw that he was nearing a security checkpoint. 'Oh boy, here we go again.'

As Caleb approached, the security officer smiled like he was seeing an old friend, which he was. "What's up caleb?", The colored officer said, "how's my white janitor doing?"

"If I was any better I'd be a black guy sitting in a chair all day and getting paid to do it."

"Aww Caleb, you know my jobs a lot more complicated than that, I got all that special training and shit."

"But Joseph, we have this conversation almost every day," Caleb smirked as he handed over his ID, "I say that you sit around all day, you brag about your 'special training', I ask what's so special about it and you say..."

"Classified", Joseph dutifully finished, "and that if I tell you I would have to kill you"

"Yea, now I gotta get going..."

"Hey! Hold on a second", Joseph smiled, "You almost forgot your favorite part." He held up a small device that looked like a grocery scanner.

"Aww, I thought I could slip past you this time, I hate the retinal scanner."

"Like hell you will, last time you did my superiors chewed me out for a solid three hours...it's by the lords grace that I didn't get demoted." Joseph frowned, it was clearly a touchy subject.

"Yeah...I guess I still owe you a favor for that one..."

"Big time, anyway retina scans are normal, your free to go."

"Thanks Joseph, don't work too hard ya lazy bum!" Caleb smiled as he left, talking to Joseph always put him in a good mood. The two has been friends since they met on Caleb's first day on the station, they where a sort of people that always took to each other and where friends within minutes.

As Caleb walked down the corridor he glanced at the numerous rooms to his left and right. Storage 150883, lavoratory 150884, living quarters 150885, laboratory 150886, ext. ext. "Wow", Caleb said to himself, "it never ceases to amaze me how big The Pursuit of Knowledge is."

He whistled a tune as he walked down the corridor before reaching the Bridge of Glass. While the Pursuit of Knowledge's main purpose is creating the latest innovations in biological, mechanical, and chemical science it has one feature created solely to impress The Board. The bridge spanned two kilometers between the two main hubs of the station and was about 30 meters wide. And as the name suggests the entire structure is made of glass like materials giving the appearance that you are walking in space..and the view was breathtaking. "Millions...no hundreds of millions of stars surround me, I am but a speck of matter floating in a sea so vast it can only be accurately compared to itself, the universe. Endless, ancient, all-consuming, and filled with the unknown, a million stars compete to grasp attention, each one striving to be the biggest and brightest, to shine like no one before. That is their goal and it is mine as well, I can do anything I put my mind to! ...All the professors at the academy can suck it! I totally could have been a poet!" Caleb stepped off the bridge into D-Block and approached sector 5.

It was like a ghost town. 'Hmm, this is strange, this place is usually full of people...well it's not like I can disobey orders over a funny feeling', Caleb thought as he gathered the tools he would need for a pipe repair, as well as his general tools, from a supply room, and continued through the seemingly abandoned D-Block, it was starting to creep Caleb out. "Ok," Caleb tried to coach himself through the creepiness of this whole scenario, "all I have to do is pop into the vents, fix the leak, mark the problem in my report, and get the hell out of here. Simple."

As he approached the area he immediatly saw what had tripped the system alarm. A black substance had seeped out of the ventilation, stopping the cover form closing properly and thus making the system report the error.

Caleb knelt down and touched the black buildup, it was hard and smooth. He tried to pick at it with his fingernail but it thwarted his every attempt, this stuff was TOUGH! 'What is this stuff, it's certainly not shit, never seen anything like it...'

Without much else to do he called Sarah, she answered on the second ring. "Hey Caleb, how are you?"

"I'm great but I have a bit of a problem."

"You, problem?" She teased, "that's so unlike you!"

"Yea, haha laugh at the matinence guy see where that gets you, you must remember that time I fixed your sink..."

"How could I forget, you ruined my makeup, do you know how expensive that was?" Sarah said reminiscing in the good memory.

"Of course I know how expensive that was I bought all of it for you," Caleb chuckled, the unease he felt earlier had vanished replaced with a warmth in his chest, "but back to my predicament, I need you to radio in an unknown buildup in D-Block, Sector five, vent #287, source unknown."

"Wait, what do you mean unknown, what does it look like." Sarah sounded a bit worried.

"Well, it's black, very hard, cool to the touch," Caleb opened the vent, "aaaand it's coating the entire vent, maybe more...fantastic. You sounded worried is this stuff toxic or something?"

Sarah was very scared now. "Oh lord...Caleb you need to get out of there RIGHT NOW!"

"Wait, what do you mean? If it's da-"

"Caleb there's no time to explain, you need to get to one of the emergeny rooms, RUN! Don't stop for anyone or anything! GO!"

"Got it, I'll call you when I'm there," Caleb could tell when Sarah was serious and turned to get to the emergency room...but stopped dead in his tracks.

A figure had crept up on him silently and now towered over him menacingly. Caleb had never seen anything like it in his life, it's stood more than a foot taller that him, had what seemed to be an exoskeleton that was the same color as the stuff in the vents, and had a very distinct oblong head...but the most shocking thing of all was that it wasn't moving, just standing there, still as a statue.

"...uuum...h-hello," Caleb said trying to stay as unthreatening as possible, "Do you want to see my leader...cus' he's kind of an assho-"

Faster than he thought possible the creature shot at him, grabbed him by his shirt, and threw him at the wall. Caleb saw stars dance across his vision and shook his head to clear them.

"...oww..fuck," Caleb looked up to see the creature towering over him again, he saw its hand raise to a striking position...and swipe down at him...then he saw no more.

"...No...Caleb..", Sarah had seen the entire thing, right down to the xenomorph dragging the unconscious Caleb back into the ventilation, "he's...gone...just gone"

They had never been the closest of couples, Sarah's long hours often prevented them from spending much time together. But those moments they did have together...those where special. All of those memories where just that, nothing but memories, he was gone.

There was only one thing he could do. With tears in her eyes...she locked down D-Block


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: First off, I am sorry I tossed the first chapter up without saying my intents for the story. I was just so exited! I haven't written just to write for so long that I had forgotten how much fun it was. Anyway, the story itself I scheduled to be...as long as I feel like writing it. Honestly the concept idea (which will be reviled this chapter) was so open ended and full of potential that I could probably write for years, but I digress. Another topic I wish to touch on is the readers role in all this, any ideas for the story or concepts you wish to throw at me are more than welcome as well as criticism. However if your input to the story is less than six words long (ex. "You need to write better" or "They should break up") don't be surprised if I overlook it. The final thing I wanted to talk about is why the story is rated the way it is. It's M for swearing, violence, gore, and innuendo from time to time. So, chapter 2 take it away! Happy Reading!**

Chapter 2

"Uuhhhh *cough cough*...wa-what happened", Caleb slurred groggily trying to come back to conciousnes. Slowly he opened his eyes, breaking the crust that had formed over them, and tried to look around. He was in his own personal hell by the look if it. Every square inch if surface he could see was covered in the black stuff he had seen earlier, he looked around 360° for an exit of some sort but couldn't see any. Couldn't see... "Oh I'm an idiot", he reached to his belt and pulled out a small utility light then switched it on, as it turned out the room was it fact covered with the black stuff, but something was different.

The stuff he first saw looked like it had simply leaked out of the vents, this stuff was definatly put here on purpose. As he looked closer he saw that there where intricate patterns all along the room, a quick flach of his flashlight confirmed not only that the same patterns coated the entire room but that the entire room was mirrored, with the same patterns on both sides. Caleb stood up. "Oookay, if Sarah were here she could say that this shows sights of higher thinking in the creature, I'm just gonna say its creepy", Caleb shined his light to the centre of the room, "...oh look more creepy."

Right next to where he stood was two things. A cyan, slightly football shaped, object that was...open for lack of better terms. And two, a pale blue spider thing...with a tail. "Yea, creep-O-meter is off the charts, I want out."

He flicked his light around the room trying to find an exit, the only one he could find was s circular hole in the ceiling, he shined his light in the hole and found that he couldn't see anything but more "art" courtesy of the creature. "Yea, there's no way I'm getting up there, great I get to stay here and starve to death."

Suddenly, it felt like Caleb's heart took a sledge hammer to his ribs, he clenched his chest and doubled over. "Gah!" Another, stronger, attack smashed against his ribs and he felt one of them crack. He fell to his knees and gritted his teeth. 'What's happening to me?!' It felt like a heavyweight boxer was was punching his way through his chest with brass knuckles dipped in acid. A third blow struck his ribs, this time with a series of gruesomely audible cracks. He looked to the second from last wall in the hexegonal room. "INFAM-" Before he could say any more a fourth blow struck causing a loud squishy SNAP! Surprisingly the pain in his chest receded, he looked down to see why and immediatly wished he hadn't. The pain in his chest had receded because HIS CHEST WASN'T THERE ANYMORE! Where his chest used to be there was a small light blue...worm...with teeth. For whatever reason, be it acceptance or loss of blood, Caleb felt like he wasn't part of his own body anymore, he was just a spirit watching the misfortune of another. The worm began to...well worm it's way out of him, but for some reason he couldn't feel it, or much of anything. 'That's probably for the better'

Wait, no he could feel something, a...tugging...a tugging sensation on his chest. But no, not on his chest...IN his chest, it felt like something was being pulled out of his chest. He tried for a moment and found that he could resist it...but he didn't want to. 'Wait, why don't I want to?'

SQUEAK! With what energy the body had left it looked down, still on its knees, the worm was looking at him...almost expectantly. 'What, you waiting for me to die so you can eat me?'

'No.'

'Wait, what?'

'I said no.'

'Well who are you?

'I am you.'

'Uhm, sorry...voice in my head, but I'm me.'

'Well, you are me and I am you, we are each other.'

'I don't follow...'

'Two beings, one body. Alike in every way, but entirely different.'

'...great, in the final moments of my life I go insane, just great.'

'Well think of my end of the stick, the first few seconds of our life and I already think that we're insane.'

'Stop that.'

'Stop what?'

'Speaking about yourself in the third person...and as more than one person.'

'But don't you remember? Two be-'

'Yea, yea, I heard you, I still don't understand it though.'

'Here, I'll help you with that.' During the exchange the body of Caleb had fallen over with his head facing to the side. The worm snaked over to his face. 'This should clear things up.' The worm pressed its' head to his forehead.

'...well what was that supposed to d-GAH!' His vision flashed and he jumped back in fright shaking his head to clear his eyes...but something was wrong. He looked up to see that a mirror had somehow appeared in front of him, he saw his own face, with his slack expression and glazed eyes...that's not right, his face felt fine. He tried opening and closing his mouth and felt the muscles moving...but didn't see his mouth move. 'What?' He tried it a few more times before something occurred to him, something unthinkable. 'No...' 'Yes.' Caleb looked down to see his body...his long body...his very blue, long body. He tried to yell but all that came out was a hiss 'This can't be happening...this simply can't be happening. What did you do to me?!'

'I would like to think I saved you, all things considered.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well as I left your body I noticed that I was the only one of my kind, I thought that even someone not of my kind would be better than no one to talk to...sooo when I was on my way out of you I left you a path to my body...and you took it. I also felt quite bad for you, while it's true my kind needs to kill another to reproduce I still don't like the idea of causing unnecessary pain and suffering.'

'...well thank you I suppose. What now?'

'Now we eat your old body!' His other Half said, and quite enthusiastically at that.

'...well...fuck.' Caleb let unconsciousness take him.

**...well? What did you think? PM or review with your answer! Also as with most stories follows and faves are much appreciated! Chapter three is well underway so the wait won't be long. Live long and prosper!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note: i had to take a minor break from writing but have no fear! I will start posting more regularly... Also I know that the mental conversation between Caleb and the xeno was very confusing and honestly that was the whole idea. I mean think about it, if you had a xeno in your mind and you both where talking via thought it would get pretty confusing. However I promise that as the story progresses I will get easier to understand these two. Oh and on a quick note, I describe the characters in my story rather...vauegly, this is on purpose. I really like the idea of each reader having their own take on the story and experienceing it differently. It's not that I don't want to or don't have the ability to write vividly. Anyway, I've talked long enough, enjoy chapter three! **

Caleb slowly came back to consciousness...and he tasted something absolutely delicious! 'Wow, that's really good!' 'Im glad you think so!'

He opened his eyes and realized that he was in the same room as before and that he was, rather vigorously, tearing into a hunk of meat. That's when he noticed his mouth...or mouths rather. 'Is that my...tounge?'

'What's a tounge? Oh are you refering to this?' He sat up and stretched his 'tounge'

'Yea, that's our inner mouth, we use it for chewing and eating while the outer mouth is more for biting.'

'Speking of which, what are we eating, it tastes wonderful!'

'Well, I believe this is what's left of your former leg.'

Caleb felt his stomach do an ethereal backflip (as his real stomach was enjoying itself thuroughly) '...so where's the rest of me...'

'If looking at your leg made you squeamish I wouldn't look behind you.'

Several thoughts popped into Caleb's head. 'No, we don't need to eat often. Yes we can eat most all meats. Our eyes are hidden under our skin. And no I don't have a name.'

'...how did you know my questions before I said them?'

'You don't need to say anything, we share the same mind remember?'

'Wait, so exactly how much do you know about me?'

'Everything.'

'...ok...prove it. Where did I have my-'

'On your home planet, in your fathers antique car, on a hill overseeing a big city. Her lips where soft, supple, and tasted faintly like strawberries, her name was Catherine and you two had been dating for three months.

'Ok, what's Sarah's-'

'Blue, her favorite food is sushi, her job is unknown to you aside from her telling you that she is a scientist, you have been dating for a year now, and you are still absolutely infatuated with her...believe me now?'

'Yes...'

'Good, now let's leave the nest shall we?'

'How are we going to do that, last I checked you-er we where a worm.'

'Well not anymore, how about you try moving a bit, you might find that a few things have changed while you where asleep.'

Without thinking too much he tried to slither like a snake...and quickly fell towards the ground. "Hissss!" He closed his eyes and prepared for a hard landing...but it never came. He opened his eyes to see that he had cought himself, with arms. Caleb did a once over of himself and saw that he indeed had legs, arms, hands, feet, and...a tail...all where shades of blue, ranging from navy blue to a darker cyan.

'...considering all the crazy shit that has happened so far...I'm gonna guess that this is normal.'

'You would be correct.'

'Mmmkay' Caleb moved his tail around experimentaly and found that it was very useful for keeping balanced. 'Yup, this is weird.'

'Well as good as it is to see you get acquainted with our body we should really get going.'

'Why?'

'I have been sifting through your memories and I found the protocols for the cleansing of unknown material, it involves lots of fire if I'm not mistaken...'

'Oh shit your right, but how are we gonna get out of here?'

'Just give it a try.'

Not seeing any other alternative Caleb took a tentative step forward, stumbling slightly as he was unused to the his new legs and surprisingly light weight. Looked up at the only passageway out, still unable to see the end of it even with his new eyes, then expiramentally tried to brush his hand along the black, ridged, substance. To his surprise he found that his hands practically magnetized to the walls, he placed another hand on the stuff and began climbing up. 'I'm like that old superhero Spider-man, this is no sweat!'

He reached the top quickly and found that he was still in the ventilation. 'Where do we go now uhh...I still need something to call you, I can't just call you cocky-voice-in-my-head can I?'

'I see no purpose in names, but if you really think I need one then I suppose you can call me... Hades.'

'Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. Why did you chose that?'

'Well I don't suppose I would make a very good Isis and I'm certainly no Hermes.'

'Point taken, now how are we gonna get through here. I don't really know where we are...'

'Leave that to me.' Hades began to navigate the maze of vents like he had crawled through them his entire life.

'Hades, how do you know where you're going?'

'The hive mind tells me.'

'The hive mind?'

'Yes, that which links all of my kind, and you now I suppose, on a level closer than physically possible.'

'So you all like share one mind?'

'No, but your close. Whenever one of my kind comes into contact with another we share our memories. So every member of the hive knows everything the rest of the hive knows. And everything their ancestors knew.'

'Thats amazing! So you had all of this information the instant you where born?'

'Even before I was born.'

'Thats just...unbelievable.' Caleb sensed that they where nearing their destination. 'Where are we going anyway Hades?'

'I am not to sure, the memories are...fuzzy...all I know for sure is that there is food and shelter.'

'Sound good to me.'

As they rounded a bend in the vent they noticed an open exit port, almost beckoning them to it. 'Is that where we are going Hades?'

'Yes, it looks just like the memory. Actually it looks quite a bit clearer, less fuzzy.'

'Well, I suppose let's go.' Caleb jumped out of the vents into the unknown room. They where momentarily blinded by the bright lights. When their eyes adjusted they saw that they where in a perfectly white room...with no way out. 'Oh no.' Caleb whipped around to see the ventilation close swiftly. 'Oh this is not good...Hades, have any ideas.'

'Just one.' Hades rushed the vent with lightning speed and slammed his tailtip into the creases, denting the metal significantly. 'I can get us out of here no pro-'

"I would stop that if I where you," a detached voice announced, "there are glass rods imbedded in the metal that, if broken, will cause the room explode violently, killing you no doubt."

Caleb stopped and turned looking for the source of the voice...he found it oddly framilar. The wall he thought the voice came from suddenly turned transparent...revieling Sarah.

**There's chapter three folks, I hope you enjoyed! I have chapter four written and ready to post, I just want to wait a bit for reviews and such. So expect a two or three day wait for the next chapter. Happy Reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note: It's late...im tired...I'm blowing my ears off with music to stay awake...I literally can think of nothing to say about this chapter...the bass just dropped...yea...**

**Fuck it enjoy the chapter, Happy Reading!**

Caleb tried to call her name, but all that came out was an odd hiss. "Hmph, well at least you where intelligent enough to stop banging on the vents, I would have had to sedate most other xenomorphs."

'Xenomorph? Is that the name of your kind Hades?'

'...apparently.' They returned their attention to Sarah.

"Well your not the first xeno to understand human speech...that's a good start" ,Caleb cocked his head to the side at her comment, "confused are we? We'll let me clear some things up. I am the head xenologist of this ship and you are a xenomorph, I am here to unlock the secrets of your kind and you are going to provide them...one way or another." The xenomorph stood deathly still, taking in every iota of information he could.

"Attentive I see. Good, your the most cooperative xeno so far...maybe that has to do with the blue coloration...hmmm," Sarah scribbled down a few notes on her tablet, "now on to a more...personal matter. I don't care if you intended to or not and I don't care if the board says that your 'too valuable', you killed Caleb...and there is no way I can forgive that. So if you so much as take one step in the wrong direction...I will personally blow you to oblivion. Do you understand?"

Caleb nodded slowly. "Excellent, now I must be going, I have things to attend to", She began walking out of view, "also, since you are one of the smart ones, if you try to melt the walls or glass with your blood you will meet the same end as if you broke the vent, so play nice. Goodbye." She faded fully from view as the glass turned back to the nondescript white as before. 'So that's your girlfriend, she's very...formal.'

'...'

'Caleb?'

'...'

'CALEB!'

'Sarah thinks I'm dead...the only person on this godforsaken place who truly cares for me thinks I died a horrible death.'

'Caleb it's not-'

'Not what? Not the end of my relationship with her!? Look at us Hades! We're a walking weapon of destruction! I can imagine what one of us could accomplish, but just think of what a whole hive could do! For the rest of my life I will be a monster in her eyes as well as a constant danger to her...and I don't know if I can live like that.'

'...we are not in as much of a pickle as you may imagine.'

'Now why would you think that?'

'Heres my idea...'

...

Sarah enters the lab, her lab coat freshly pressed and tablet in her hand same as usual. She saw the xenomorph specimen crouching by the far wall with its back to her. It was fiddling with something. She walked up to the microphone and pressed the activation symbol. "What are you doing over there?" No response. "Hey! Don't make me-"

The xenomorph turned suddenly, put its finger to its mouth an _shushed her. _It shocked her so much that she indeed shut up. The xeno went back to whatever it was doing. 'How can it know how to do that?' Sarah thought 'I've never shushed it and I'm 100% certain that it never met another soul aside from me, what are you hiding?' The blue xenomorph stood up slowly, and Sarah saw a drop of green splatter to the floor. 'It can't be that stupid can it?'

The xeno raised its hand and began tracing its finger across the wall in different places, causing very visible acid burns wherever it's finger touched. 'What is it...oh my...' As Sarah watched intently, the seemingly random scribilings of lines and curves began to form...words. Already a slightly sloppy "I" was forming soon after an "am" was completed. Sarah's mind was racing. 'It can write! In English! There's so many tests that can be avoided and overlooked, and if it gives full cooperation months worth of of testing can be accomplished in days. And the implications of a xenomorph ambassador or a xeno who can teach others how to read and write...I can't even imagine.' Sarah was so caught up in her revelations that she hardly noticed that the xeno had finished and was staring at her. Sarah looked at the xeno with a blank expression, not understanding. The Xeno let out a low his, which Sarah swore was a sigh, and pointed with his still bloody finger at the wall behind him. "What, do you want a treat? I know you can wri-*gasp*" Sarah's eyes landed on the words once more...the xenomorph had written, clear as day, the words "I AM CALEB :)"

"Y-you...your Caleb?"

He nodded vigerously, putting on only what could be a xenomorph smile.

"I-I don't know what to say, you want me to believe that you're Caleb. The one who I was in love with, the one who is now no more than a pile of bones...that caleb!"

Again he nodded.

"Well that's...I can't just believe that, and I'm not sure if I want to. How can you prove it?"

He stopped smiling and seemed to think for a moment before looking back at Sarah and making a "come here" motion. "You want me to...hmm."

'She's not gonna do it Hades, she would literally have to be insane to come in here with us.'

'Look.'

Sarah stood staring for a moment before turning and resolutely walking out of view. 'See, she left. I told you that there was no-' A door that wasn't there a moment before turned transparent revieling Sarah sporting a new watch.

"Just so you know, if this watch stops recording my pulse it will cause the room to explode. If I die you die as well...I'm choosing to trust you, don't make me regret it."

Without any hesitation she opened the door and stepped in with the door shutting behind her. She glanced at the writing on the wall again, the blood had burned its way down the wall and was now completely illegible. Caleb was almost as shocked as Sarah, she was actually believing him! 'Hades, you where right, she believed us! ...Hades?' Caleb could tell something was wrong with him, the entire time he knew him Hades had been always felt very bright and full of energy. But now all caleb could feel was a darkness.

'Caleb...I don't want to alarm you, but your girlfriend looks very...tempting at the moment. I advise that you take control now, I don't want to chance anything with her.'

'What do I do?' Hades mind seemed to be receding into itself, as if trying to separate itself from him. 'Just do as I did with you, now I need to focus on something else.' His mind seemed to completely part from Caleb's, leaving him alone in his mind.

'Oddly enough, it feels weird to be alone in my mind. Well here goes nothing.' Caleb walked towards Sarah, much like a human would. She stiffened as he approached not knowing what events would unfold. "I really hope that's you in there Caleb."

Caleb reached his hand out and brushed the hair out of Sarah's eyes like he had done so many times before. She looked up to his face, her observant blue eyes stared into him. Before he could lose his nerve he grabed both sides of her face and, ignoring her look of shock, pressed his forehead to hers.

At first nothing happened causing Caleb to think he made a mistake. But then he felt something, a barrier, and a presence behind it. He prodded at the barrier, feeling it yield a bit, then pushed against it in earnest. The barrier held for a moment before shattering like crystal. With no instructions forthcoming Caleb tried something. 'Uuh, can you hear me now?'

Sarah broke contact and stared at Caleb, a look of wonder in her eyes. "I can't believe-"

"NOW! MOVE IN AND SEDATE THE CREATURE!" Nearly a dozen armed personnel rushed into the room. Caleb jumped back and hissed murderously, how dare they get in between him and Sarah!

The men where in what seemed to be full riot armor armed with riot shields, stun batons, and guns of some sort. Caleb dropped into a low crouch, his body going into auto pilot, and raised his tail with its lance like tip over his head much like a scorpion. 'What the hell, Hades is this you? If it is stop, we don't need to-' Caleb's blood ran cold as he heard a scream, Sarah's scream...

'No! Their hurting her, killing her! I MUST SAVE HER!' Regardless of his own safety he hurled himself at the phalanx of men faster than any of them could react. He grabbed the first man by the throat and threw him into his colleges, knocking them out of the way. This reviled another armored man struggling to pull Sarah out of the room. Caleb's vision turned red, 'HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER!' He barreled towards the two pushing past more units who tried to stop him, one man was brave enough to stand directly in his path and raise his shield. A tail flashed, a gun droped, and a brave soul looked down to see a tail spike piercing his shield and buried in his chest. Caleb yanked his tail out and visciously punched the man in the head, earning a satisfying CRUNCH from his skull being crushed.

Sarah struggled violently with the armored man, "let me go! Their going to hurt him!"

"Professor, we need to get you out of here, it's not safe." The man said.

"You don't understand, he's not-*gasp*" Sarah was the first to notice the black form looming over them. The man turned around and froze, behind him was the scattered remains of his team, some dead, some injured, and none of them ready to help. Oh, and there was the **extremely **pissed off Xenomorph known as Caleb. Fast as lightning Caleb's hand was around the poor mans throat, cutting off all breath, and lifted him into the air. He smashed the man into the wall, not hard enough to kill him but enough to break a few bones and dent the metal. All the man could focus on was the cold, eyeless stare of the xenomorph. Much to the mans terror the xeno's mouth began to open, revealing it's deadly inner mouth, he saw the mouth lunge towards him...and then saw no more.

Caleb dropped the corpse, trying to ignore the the pleasant taste in his mouth, and stood in front of Sarah defensively. The six remaining armored personnel where back up and in formation but made no movements against him. He took no chances, hissing at them menacingly. 'Don't worry Sarah, they can't hurt you now.'

No response, Caleb turned to look back at her, 'Sarah?'

A sharp pain stabbed into Caleb's back causing him to yelp and jump away, he reached back and grabbed at the source of his pain. He found it and yanked it out, it was an empty syringe, 'Sarah, what the hell!'

She walked to him, as he fell to one knee, and whispered. "This is for your own good, you can rest now." His world seemed to tilt and refract on itself causing him to stumble and fall to the ground. Darkness creeped in from the edges of his vision, he couldn't think straight and soon he couldn't think at all. And the darkness overcame him.

**AN: zzzzZZZzzzzzzzzZzzzZzzzz...damn editor...stealing ma sleep...ZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzz**

**...and skrew halo...stealin ma sleep too... Zzzzzzzzzzz...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors note: This is the longest chapter so far, it's about 3000 words long. Some serious plot points are swirling about here so pay attention. I love you all so much for the support you have been giving. Thanks to you guys and gals I'm writing daily and I have a plan for at least five more chapters! Enjoy Chapter Five! Happy reading!**

Caleb's head swam with thought. A million memories swam through his head all trying to solidify into something more than a flashed image or a blip of speech...it continued like that for some time.

Beautiful woman appeared, "Good bye Caleb, try not to lose yourself up there."

A large man swirled into view, "you can change the world if you just put your mind to it son."

Two sets of bright blue eyes solidified into two young boys waving, "Bye Caleb!" "Watch out for space monsters!"

His mind deteriorated into images again.

...the dull interior of a spacecraft.

...an even duller job description.

...weeks of mindless cleaning and fixing.

...weeks turning into months.

...Sarah...

...several days of small talk that lead to a friendship.

...a friendship that lead to...so much more.

...love...and finally a feeling of hope.

...and then came a letter. Caleb's mind sharpened as he focused on they memory, it happened just a few months ago.

Caleb was walking down the corridor to his old tier five living quarters when he was stopped by his friend Joseph, they had only met a few days prior. "Hey, Sarah said she wanted to speak with you in her office."

'What? Sarah hardly has time to meet with me after work, how could she have time now?'

"I'll get there right away then, thanks Hoseph." Caleb called out as he walked away.

"I told you I hate when you call me that! I will detain you for so long your-", Joseph's voice cut off as the doors to the Bridge of Glass closed.

A few minutes later Caleb reached Sarah's office and stepped inside taking it all in. Onboard the Pursuit of Knowlage scientists where kind of a big deal and Sarah who was apparently a rockstar in the world of science got all the best luxuries they wanted, though it made getting her a present a real bitch. Caleb had been in here once before and it still shocked him how cool this room was, Sarah's desk was beyond antique being made of mohagony and precious metals derived straight from earth hundreds of year ago, the chairs weren't as old but still made of real leather making the whole set worth several million credits. The left wall seemed to be made of glass, revieling beauty of space beyond. The rest of the office was a bit less ornate but more functional all the same, with several projectors both for presenting data and for AIs, a few framed pictures, and a file cabinet no doubt filled with legal papers (the only thing still required to be in paper). On top of the cabinet was something special, a framed iPhone 4s. 'That's something special, it's amazing that any of those made it past the 22nd century.'

"If you're done gaping Caleb", Sarah said, snapping Caleb out of his nostalga, "I have something serious I need to talk to you about."

"Am I in trouble or something", something was wrong and Caleb could tell, "because I know for a fact there were no cameras in-"

"No Caleb...it's just...here look at these," she handed over a bundle of papers. Caleb scrutinized the first paper for a moment before looking back to Sarah confused. "These are inheritance papers, what about it?"

"Well, for starters they are for you. The papers say that you get quite a bit of money from it, however the Weyland corp. has rights on half of it because of your contract." She looked quite depressed by this.

"Well that's fine, you know I'm not too crazy about money. I am the janitor, remember...not exactly aspiring to make serious bank."

"That's not it Caleb, there's no easy way to say this so I'll be blunt. That inheritance...it's from your parents." Caleb's eyes widened at this, he had thought that the inheritance was from his grandmother.

"...well...", Caleb's eyes grew very distant, "I thought I would be prepared for this...but it's just too soon."

Sarah got up from her chair and walked around the desk. Caleb refocused and stood, turning to meet her. Surprisingly she reached out and pulled him into a warm embrace. She looked up ever so slightly into his eyes, "Are you gonna be ok Caleb?"

"...I thought I would be prepared. I told myself before that one day I would come back home to see my family again, but that was a lie. I know the moment I left earth that I would never see my parents again."

"Caleb...", without realizing it Caleb had turned to look out the window, gazing into space. He looked back into Sarah's deep green eyes, and she into his blue ones, "Caleb, I want you to know that I will always by here for you...but only if you do the same."

He looked into her eyes for a moment longer and then pulled her closer, she opened her mouth to say something, but Caleb moved forward and kissed her, quite passionately I might add. It wasn't the overly passionate "I WANT TO SUCK YOUR FACE" kiss, nor was it a mere peck. It held much more meaning than that. It lasted for a few seconds before Sarah drew back. "Forgive me if I seem rude...but I would like if you say that aloud."

Caleb smiled, "Well, in that case I want to say that you are the most beautiful being in the known universe and that I would never even consider leaving you. A million light years of space, a hundred thousand planets, a star fleet, and a black hole would not be enough to keep me from getting to you. The stars in the space try to shine brighter when you are around because you outshine them all, and somehow I cought your eye. I love you more than life itself and I'll do anything to protect you. I swear on all that I am that I will always be there for you...for you are life itself to me and without you I am nothing."

The memory crumbles to nothing.

'Caleb' The voice came from the blackness. 'What?'

'Ah good, your back' it was hades and he seemed to be back to normal, 'Could you come here, you missed quite a lot while you where away.'

'Uhh, how do I do that?'

'Here, let me come get you.'

'How does this even wor-hiiiii!' What Caleb felt next can't be adequately described, the closest coming sensation would be that of a brain freeze...only the brain freeze seemed to pick up his brain and drag through several layers of jello. 'Holy fu-'

'No time for that, look.' Caleb realised his eyes where closed from shock and that he hadn't felt them before, or much of anything for that matter. 'I'll figure that out later.' He opened them and looked around. Immediatly he realised that he was mere inches from the face of some old man.

Before he could determine any specific details a large pain registered in his brain. He hissed sharply and reached to his head. However his hand never made it to his head. Looking down Caleb realised that his entire body was held in place by thick metal restraints. He tested the metal and found that they held firm, he wasn't going anywhere.

"Hmm vell zis is interesting", the smell of turkey told Caleb that the old guy was talking and that apparently he didn't brush his teeth today, "ze subject haz been conscious and restrained for hours and only now considers escape."

'I don't like him.' 'Vas it hiz accent zat tipped you off?' 'Very funny, and yes that was partially it. I don't know, he just has that evil scientist/bad guy vibe to him, it's almost as if some bad writer REALLY wanted this guy to scream bad guy'

"BAD GUY", the old man yelled, "I've told you vonce before and I'll tell you again, my methods in expirimentation don't make me a bad guy."

Before Caleb could point out how ludicrous the situation was the hand of Zeus came down and smote him. One hundred thousand volts of electricity flowed through him, his screams reverberated throughout the room making it seem as if there where twenty Xenomorphs instead of one. Caleb strained against his bonds and thrashed his tail about. If he had enough control of his eyes to open them he could see that electricity was visibly arching off of his body. The old man shut off the power and Caleb went slack. "From merely vone expiriment", the man said while raising his finger, "I have determined three things, vone that the xenomorph is highly conductive to electricity. Two, that he is highly resistant to electric shock, its heart hardly faltered during the procedure. And three, that although it can live through such an ordeal it will hurt. A fair bit by the look of it. It's just too bad that your all bound up, I'm sure you want to kill me. But your just too weak."

"Ah, Dr. Lehmann it's in my personal expirience not best to piss off a xenomorph, especially a kind we know nothing about." This voice came in over the speaker system.

"In in my professional opinion you should trust in ze power of science, zose bonds are made vith carbon nanotubes. Zat shit just von't break."

At that moment all Caleb and Hades could feel was a deep primal rage. This man, this **HUMAN**, clapped him in irons, shocked him with enough electricity to kill a ten men, and dared to call him weak? Oh he would pay...

As one, they strained against the metal bindings making no headway. "Oh look vat ve have here", the doctor mocked, "ze little xeno vants out? Vell I'll give you some vords of visdom, zose shakles are strong enough to hold a xenomorph tvice your size. Zer is no vay in hell zat you are-" CREAK!

The metal holding their left arm bent and held...before shattering. "Vhat!"

They reached for their other arm and, grabbing hold of the cold metal, wrenched both of their arms forward shattering the restraint like glass. "Nein!" The doctor ran for the door. "Dr. Chekoff! Open ze door!"

"I am, I am, get out of there!" Doctor Nelson Chekoff, who had been recording the entire prosess so far, opened the door and watched as the xenomorph tore away the rest of its bonds lunge across the room with inhuman speed and...he tried to forget what happened next. After the screaming gad stopped it was needless to say the German scientist was no more.

The xeno looked up from its kill and turned...to face directly at Nelson. 'How? The glass is one way, there's no way he should be able to-oh shit! The doors!' Nelson lunged and slammed the button causing the door to slam shut...with the creature just slipping through the opening. "Oh no" Nelson turned to see the angel of death stalking toward him. He dashed for the exit...but only made it three steps before a strong hand wrapped around his neck, stopping him in his tracks and throttling him slightly. Nelson was thrown back toward the chair he had been sitting in, knocking his head on the floor leaving him dazed. He was so disoriented that he thought he was imagining things when the xeno walked over to the exit and shut the door, locking both of them inside.

'We should kill him'

'Hades, we can't kill everyone we meet'

'But he helped the old one hurt us'

'We don't know that, in my eyes everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We need to know for sure' With that caleb walked over to the stunned scientist. Caleb picked him up and set him in the chair, not bothering to be super gentle. Nelson however was a bit more stunned that Caleb realised, he had fallen unconscious.

'Really?' Caleb sighed mentally. 'Hades, would you like to wake up our friend here?' Hades didn't bother to respond and instead roared in the doctors face, waving his arms and tail for added effect.

Nelson awoke instantly as his ears where assaulted. "Holy fucking shit tit cock sucking bitch!" His eyes frantically dashed about before landing on Caleb who was standing, quite menacingly, in front of him. Nelson screamed...and screamed...and screamed some more. Caleb grew tired of this and before long slaped him across the face, Nelson went silent. 'We need to find out where Sarah is and if she is in trouble'

'I'll take this one if you don't mind Caleb, I'm sure you could do it but I have a feeling that this requires a heavier hand.' Hades placed a hand on the cowering "mans" forehead. Where Caleb had been gentle and timid, Hades forceful and precise, though not necessarily mean. The instant he found the barrier he shattered it, causing Nelson to wince. He then stood back as if to admire his craft.

"Ah! W-what did you do that for?", Nelson asked, forgetting momentarily who he was talking to. 'How else was do you think I was to talk to you? It's not as if I know how to speak your language and you never bothered to learn mine. Besides, the better question is why you had us in that cage, and why you think yourself so high as to expiriment on us with no thought of repercussion. It's really quite naïve when you think about it.'

"Um, you...I mean me-we, er..what do you mean us?" Nelson was in a good bit of shock, his mind was racing! 'Gah! Stop that!'

"Stop what?"

'Thinking so fast, it's giving me a headache. Ah! Now your thinking about the implications of a psycic xenomorph! You know what.' Hades' tailblade was instantly at Nelsons neck. 'You think about this and I'll talk. How does that sound?'

"Uhhh...", Nelson was indeed thinking about the tailblade at his neck, "how do I know you aren't just gonna kill me.."

'Let's try this, you're a scientist and we need information, you want to live and we don't nessesarily want to kill you. So here's what we're going to do, we will ask questions of you and you get to ask the same number of questions to us. If you lie, even in the slightest, you will die. Deal?'

"...deal...", Nelson was still trying to get over the fact that he was having a sustained conversation with a Xenomorph, "What do you want to know?"

'Where is Dr. Masalym.'

"Sarah? What does she-" Hades' tail twitched slightly, making a shallow cut on Nelsons neck, "Ok! Ok! She's in the brig, B-Block, I don't know exactly where though."

'Ok, why exactly is she there, Nelson? I suggest you be as descriptive as possible...'

"How about you answer one of my questions first, I get the feeling that Sarah is pretty important to you. It would be a shame if someone forgot to tell you the security measures they took..."

Hades snarled, 'Fine, ask your question.'

"Why don't you tell me about you and your friend?" Nelson smirked. 'What do you mean friend? Don't you see that I'm the only one here.'

"Well then why do you keep refering to yourself as 'we'?" Hades snarled again, 'I am growing tired of your-' 'Hades, I think that's enough, we made a deal and I plan to uphold it.' Hades reluctantly lowered his tail and stepped back a bit. 'Hello Nelson, to answer your question yes, there are two of us in here.' Caleb gestured to his head. 'However we have no idea how it happened or why. Now, what where you saying about the security measures?'

"Well, for the most part everything is normal, there are the same amount of personel guarding the brig as usual, the only difference being a big jump in firepower. I've been seeing more and more security armed with assault rifles, at one point I thought a saw a smartgun." Nelson seemed to relax almost completely, though he was still on edge. But really, who wouldn't be? 'Well that's all we need to know now, unless you have something to add Hades.'

'Yes, I do in fact. So Nelson would you like to be knocked unconscious while the two of us talk? Yes? Splendid!' Before Nelson could talk Hades struck him at the base of his skull with the flat of his tail blade. Nelson slumped without a word. 'Why did you do that? He was cooperating.'

'He suspected your true identity.'

'What? How.'

'He is a lot smarter that we gave him credit for, apparently he read the file on us and pieced together all the irregularities in our actions, particularly everything you did.'

'Well what do we do?'

'Now, I would just kill him. However I assume that you don't want to take that route.'

'Correct.'

'Then we must take him with us.'

**AN: dun dun DUUUN! We got a new character everybody! But I have a position opening if you want to take part in making this story. My current editor is my friend Nelson and he has school that doesn't allow him to do his editing all the time, also he's writing his own story. What I'm getting at is I need a beta reader. So if any betas out there have an interest in my story and some time to spend PM me, also if you know any betas who would like my story put my name out there. However regardless of betas the next chapter will be out in a few days, I'm thinking Monday... Anyway, follows, favorites, and reviews are alway apreciated, you are all amasing people, and most inportantly...Happy Reading!**


	6. Chapter 6 Part One

**Chapter 6**

**I've got the magic in me**

**A note from The Fifty:**

**Hello readers! Gosh, it's odd to address people like that...eh oh well. So a few things, first and foremost I apologize for the longer wait than usual. I could give reasons to my absence but I would rather not dilly dally (dat phrase do!) im sure you want to read the story. One good thing of my absence is that during that time I found a wonderful person by the name of PurpleStrawberry14 to beta my story! Could I get a round of applaus for Strawberry? Oh, I'm typing a authors note and no one can actually answer that? Greeeat...could someone clap for PurpleStrawberry in the review section so that I don't look and crazier than I am? Thanks if ya do! So with no more delays I present the next chapter!**

**(I lied about the whole no delays thing :P) I do not own ANY of the AvP franchise. I only own my character Caleb and the plot. (:**

'What do you mean we have to take him with us?'

'Now, I know that you're not always the smartest so let's think here, if they find out that we are what we are, we become not only escaped xenomorphs but escaped, extremely rare, and exceedingly valuable xenomorphs. Not to mention the fact that the rest of your family could be exploited against you.'

'Well...I never thought of it like that. Your right we have to bring him.'

'I'm glad you agree, now let's go.' They grabbed Nelson and slung him over their shoulder.

'Shall we take the vents?'

'That will probably be best.'

Proceeding through the vents was tricky with an unconscious Nelson, them having to drag him behind them otherwise he would be scraped against the wall. Even then his head would go over a dent or ridge and come down with a dull thud. But before long they neared the brig, however as they approached they heard voices

"Hey Philips."

"Yea."

"My motion tracker just went off." Caleb froze. 'Hades, don't move.'

'Why not? Do-'

'Shhh! Listen.'

"For the love of God James, if you don't stop ranting about your motion tracker I'm gonna lose my ears. I swear if that thing was right about half the things it registers, we would be surrounded by an army of bad guys."

"But this time it's coming from the ventilation system." James protested.

"And three times ago it came from directly in front of us. If you want to go check it out there's an access port around the corner", Philips turned away from James, "go have an adventure in 'lala motion tracker land' see if I care."

"Fine I will."

With that James stomped off in the direction of the access port, leaving Philips alone. A few moments passed and Philips called out to James.

"Hey! Did you find those space monsters?"

No response.

"Hey", Philips was a little annoyed, "you can come back now; I didn't really mean take a break in the vents dipshit."

Still nothing.

"James, if you don't come back here I'll-"

James' arm appeared from around the corner...very clearly flipping Philips off. Philips, who was not one to take that kind of thing lightly, marched over to his partner to show him the error of his ways.

"James you little piece of-", he rounded the corner to see James...unconscious and being propped up by a xenomorph, "s-shit."

Caleb quickly supplied a fist to Philips face, knocking him out cold. With both sleepers safely hidden in the vent Caleb and Hades preceded into the brig.

'Don't worry Sarah, we're coming.'

"Let's go over this again doctor, what do you know about specimen number 97?" A man in an official looking suit asked calmly.

"I've told you everything, from its weight and height to its daily habits", Sarah was sitting across from the man, restrained in her seat, "it's an ordinary xenomorph aside from the odd coloration. Look if I can just get back to my wo-"

The man slammed his fist on the table, making Sarah jump'

"Bullshit!"

The man pulled up a holo-board and a video played on it.

"This video clearly shows the specimen cutting itself and smearing its blood on the walls, it appears to not try to escape, but to write something. From this angle we cannot determine the exact words but you reacted quite noticeably to whatever happened...I'll ask nicely one more time, what do you know about specimen 97!"

"Look I-" Sarah was cut off by a panicked voice from outside.

"Oh my god...what the fuck is that!"

"Oh shit is coming at me bro!"

"Shoot it! Shoot it!" The sound of sidearm's firing cracked through the air, followed by an ear-piercing alien scream. The sounds of shooting slowed. "I'm reloading!"

The man with Sarah stood and pulled a handgun out of his suit.

"Look out!" Something slammed into the door, denting it inward a couple inches. The pistol-fire stopped entirely, followed by more human screams.

Sarah's interrogator aimed at the door, ready for whatever came through. Sarah stood as best she could in her restraints, the man looked at her and shouted, "Doctor, sit your ass back do-"

The door was kicked off its hinges and smashed into the interrogator, slamming him into the back wall. Sarah could see that he was not moving and feared the worst. She turned to the now very open doorway as a blue figure stepped over the threshold.

"Caleb?" Sarah asked.

'Nope, Chuck Testa'

"What?"

'Uh never mind, what happened?' Caleb thought a moment. 'And why did you stab me with that needle, you know I hate needles!'

"I had to, they were going to kill you if you weren't sedated", Sarah looked down a bit and said in a quiet voice, "I did it to protect you..."

'Oh come now, I know you had my best interests in mind, you can drop the innocent schoolgirl act.' Caleb noticed the handcuffs on Sarah.

'Here, let me get those for you.' He slashed apart the chain with ease.

"Thank you", Sarah walked towards the door, "now, we have to get off of this station before-"

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

Lockdown initiated all non-combat personnel report to the safe rooms. Repeat all non-combat personnel to the safe rooms. This is not a drill, this is not a drill.

'They must have found the lab...'

[Sorry guys and gals, I had to chop this chapter up a bit for technical reasons.]


	7. Chapter 6 Part Two

"Well shit, look we need to leave now. The CEO of Weyland Corp. himself is coming to the station and we need to be long gone by the time he gets here." Sarah started to leave.

'Wait a sec, I need to grab someone first.' Caleb dashed around the corner, he reappeared a moment later with a body.

"Who the hell is that?"

'Dr. Nelson Chekoff, he's the one that took your place after you stabbed me. He along with another doctor that is', Caleb looked around for any signs of trouble; 'look I need you to carry him so that I can deal with anyone who gets in our way.'

"What? You want me to carry a full grown man? There's no way I can even lift him!"

Caleb held him up so Sarah could see. 'I wouldn't say full grown, he's only about four foot six. He's a downright dwarf.'

"Really? How'd I miss that?" Sarah took the little man. "Well I'll lead the way; you stay a bit behind so you can deal with anyone who stops us. Sound good?"

Caleb nodded, 'Let's go.'

The trio quickly moved down the corridors meeting few people, those they did meet where too busy running to the safe rooms to bother them. It was only when they met a security squad that they had some trouble...

Sarah rounded the corner and practically ran into a group of four people all carrying assault weapons and once again riot gear. The quartet instantly spun and trained their weapons on the approaching woman dragging a body. "State your name and business, now!" Caleb heard this and stopped just around the corner. He was about to round the corner and attack whoever stopped them when he heard a voice.

"Stand down, that's Dr. Masalym" It was Joseph...

'Of all the people we could have met it just had to be him, dammit all.'

'Don't worry Caleb, we'll find a way around this.' Sarah began babbling an excuse, something about being lost.

'What do you mean? It's not as if some miracle is going to drop into our lap, the world just don't work like tha-'

A door just behind Caleb opened and a short man stepped out, his eyes landed on Caleb and he screamed, "OH SHIT!" before ducking back into the room.

Joseph reacted immediately, raising his rifle he said, "Johnson, Ramirez, go check that out."

"On it."

Joseph, Sarah, and the remaining security officer watched as the two moved out of sight. Moments passed by silently.

"Ramirez...what's going on ov-" Gunshots rang and Ramirez flew across the corridor slamming into the wall; followed closely by Johnson, they where both limp when they landed. The remaining two armed personnel trained their rifles forward...seconds pass...then more...then the screaming began again. "No! Go away! Stop! Put me down! Heeelp!"

A second later Joseph saw a xenomorph walk almost casually into view...holding the wriggling body of some poor man, but something was amiss. A rifle was raised in Joseph's peripheral vision; he reacted quickly, shoving the barrel of the gun down.

"Hold your fire", Joseph said quickly, "it's got a hostage!"

Indeed Caleb did have a hostage; he held the squirming scientist by his neck and placed his tail blade lightly on his collar bone. Joseph kept his gun trained on the creature but had no intention of shooting yet. Upon closer inspection he spotted the doctors name tag. "Dr. Wesson, I think you should stop squirming before that thing slits your throat..."

He did in fact stop moving but shut his eyes and started saying, "this can't be happening", over and over.

'Well what do we do know oh great and intelligent Hades? We can't speak to negotiate with him; all we did was buy a few seconds and put ourselves in a shooting gallery.'

'You forget Sarah, though, why don't you ask her to help us hmm?'

'Wait, why me? It's your idea after all.'

'You never properly introduced me remember, she has no idea who I am.'

'Oh crap, I didn't...sorry man, it must have slipped my mind, look it's just that in all the-'

'Caleb, men with big guns are staring at us, please talk to Sarah now. Also I'm not a man.'

'Oh right...how do I do that?'

'Forgive me, sometimes I forget how ignorant you are. Instead of speaking inward as you are now, try speaking outward to the world, all who can will hear it.'

Caleb thought about it for a second, 'Umm...Sarah?' Sarah was visibly taken aback by the sudden voice in her head.

'Ah good you can hear me. So I'm in a pickle, I need you to do...something to Joseph, maybe like tackle him or scream at him or-' Sarah placed Nelson, who was currently snoring and murmuring something about rainbow ponies, on the ground. Then, quite to everyone's surprise, she unclipped Joseph's sidearm and smashed the pistol into the base of Joseph's skull.

Everyone was still for a moment as Sarah stood there with the pistol in her hand. At that point several things happened all at once. Dr. Wesson broke free of Caleb's loosening grip and ran, still with his eyes closed, until smacking into the wall. Nelson squirmed on the ground and started sucking on his thumb. The remaining security officer reacted the quickest, stepping forward and slamming the butt of his gun into Sarah's head, knocking her to the ground. And Caleb's vision turned red...

Caleb was on the man in an instant, taking the gun and breaking it in his grip. Then grabbing his vest Caleb lifted him up before slamming the man into the ground. He tried to back away, but wasn't quick enough before the xenomorph's foot stomped down on him, crushing his ribs and forcing them into his soft organs. Caleb watched as the mans struggled breathing caused his ribs to puncture his lungs over and over and his heart tore itself apart on the sharp fragments of bone. He was dead in minutes.

Several moments passed as Caleb just stood there. The red eventually faded from his eyes and he could think once more.

'Holy shit...Hades what the hell was that?'

'Your female parental figure...'

'What?'

'Oh is that not how it's said, hmm, never mind then. That which you experienced a moment ago came from our body, from our very instincts. You see my kind sometimes take partners, mates if you will, when they reach adulthood. Even though most of my kind lack the ah...parts...that humans use to show affection we grow very close to our partners, and thusly each partner will furiously defend each other, even with their own lives. That is what you felt when that man struck Sarah.'

If a xeno could, Caleb would be blushing after that alien talk of the birds and the bees...or lack thereof.

'So any time someone hurts Sarah...'

'We will likely kill them.'

The implications of that hit Caleb rather quickly. One however hit faster than the others.

'You said we...so that means...'

'Yes, I harbor the same feelings for Sarah as you do.'

'Um... Shit that's my fault isn't it.'

'Oh now don't be that way, I would never condemn you simply because you chose to feel for Sarah, besides while Sarah is not the same as I had thought, she is a very intelligent and a very interesting being. To be quite frank there are worse beings to be bonded with.'

'Well regardless I still feel kinda bad; I mean I basically chose who you will be without even asking.'

'Do not worry, I hold no ill will. And we can talk more later, for now we must do as Sarah said and get off this station.'

'Oh crap! I forgot Sarah.' Caleb looked to see her lying on the ground clearly unconscious but breathing normally. 'Well at least she's ok...crap we gotta carry all three of them don't we?'

'Yes, yes we do Caleb.'

'And we gotta bring Joseph too?'

'I doubt he thinks _we _pistol whipped him, when he wakes up he'll probably tell someone about how he was attacked by a blue xenomorph and had it right where he wanted it until some poor defenseless woman cracked him in the base of the skull. It's either bring him with us or kill him'

'Damn...well let's go I suppose.'

And so they did, dragging the three of them was very awkward so it took several minutes to reach the evacuation bay. Upon arriving Caleb and Hades noticed that there was no one there.

'Well, that makes sense I suppose, everyone is likely in their safe rooms by now.'

Hades looked around. The E-vac bay was fairly basic in construction, it consisted of a spaceward facing arc with circular hatches along the way; all closed currently.

'See any pods that strike your fancy?'

'Hades...they're all the exact same, in literally every way. How could the one I choose be any better than the one you choose?'

'Humor me.'

'...Fine, how about...the seventh one from the right.' Suddenly, unexplainably, the seventh closed door from the right decided it was time to open. Caleb was at a loss for words, the only thing he could manage was, 'How?'

The sound of many footsteps approaching snapped Caleb out of stupor, Hades however was already reacting, he rushed in to the open pod slashing the door controls with his tail on the way in. The thick doors slammed together, shutting out whoever was following them quite effectively.

'Now, I know that you're probably quite confused...' Hades began fastening the unconscious trio into their seats. '...and I know you have several questions about what just transpired, but for now please get us out of here.'

'Fine, I will, on one condition.'

'And that would be?'

'Stop. Reading. My. MIND!'

'But I am your mind.'

'Fuck you, you know what I mean.'

'Fine. I Hades, do solemnly swear to stop "reading your mind" to the best of my abilities. There happy?'

'Yes. Let's get out of here.' Caleb then launched the pod.

Now, let's get one thing straight. Despite what many think, spacecraft aren't that hard to pilot, escape pods even more so. In fact the only thing hard about actually piloting a spacecraft; aside from evading the occasional comet or chunk of wreckage that hurtles by, is takeoff and landing. All Caleb had to do for takeoff was press the release button that sent the small craft hurtling in space. Landing would be a bit trickier...

Caleb set a course in the direction of the swampy green planet. "ETA TEN MINUTES." The robotic voice of the pod announced.

'Well Hades, looks like we found some time to kill, would you care to explain what the hell I did that opened this pod.'

'Ah yes, that...now I had a perfectly well thought out and cohesive way to explain all of this to you...but then the guys and the escape pod and some smart ass comebacks, well you know how it goes. Anyway let me put it this way, you and I; we can affect the physical world around us.'

'So what? I was able to do that before, however not from ten meters away!'

'No no, you miss the point. I didn't say that we can simply move things in our plane of existence, it's something much more than that. How about we think of it like this, are we alive?'

'Ah, yes, I would assume.'

'Right, and what are we made of?'

'Well...flesh.'

'Smaller.'

'Atoms?'

'Correct! And this pod is made of atoms correct?'

Caleb started to see where this Q&A was going. 'Yes... do you mean what I think you're getting at?'

'Oh yes I do, and more. Both we and this pod are made of the same thing, what makes us different?'

'Well for one Hades, we're alive and I doubt this pod could land itself without my help.'

'There's where you're wrong, the ship is alive, it's just made of so many individual specks of life that no one or two moving in one direction could move the others. That's where we come in, we have the ability to make- no that's not the right word, it's more like we ask the life to do what we want it to and it reacts. Whether or not that reaction is what you want is up to them. Usually though, the life will band together and do what it is you want, from what I can tell all life wants to do is move, even in solid objects the millions of specks of life try to tug in one way or another. If you give them a direction in which to tug...well usually they take it. Are you starting to understand?'

'...so the force?'

'Oh for the love of The Mother, I'm practically spelling-'

A rather meek and unmanly groan arose from one of the seats. "Uuhh...where the heck am I?" Nelson looked around until he spotted Caleb and Hades, "aww...hell, you two again."

Caleb did a little "hiya" wave.

"So that is Caleb in there right?" Caleb nodded. "Well that explains why you haven't killed me, hey could you tell the other one to refrain from hitting me in the head again; I've got more going on up there than most."

Hades put a hand on Nelsons shoulder. 'I have a name you know, it's Hades.'

"Fair enough, so what's going on?"

'Ah well we had to get off the station so we stole an escape pod and set off, we should reach our destination...in about a minute. Oh that reminds me, do you know how to land an escape pod?'

"Ah, kinda. Where are we landing? Actually no, first why did you take me with you", something occurred to Nelson that made Caleb seem a lot more scary, "are you gonna hive me! Because that is not happening!"

On the pods control interface a red light began to blink.

Nelson tried to get up and put some distance between the two of them but was stopped by the seat restraints. 'Oh calm down I'm not gonna do that, honestly I don't even know how.'

"...oh...ok", Nelson seemed to calm a bit, "my other question then, where are we going?"

'We're heading to the greenish planet that the station is orbiting.'

"We're WHAT", Nelsons eyes practically popped out of their sockets, "do you even know what's down there?"

'Um...land?'  
>ANGLE OF DESCENT INCORRECT! MANUAL CONTROL NESSESARY! REPEAT, MANUAL CONTROL NESSESARY!<p>

"Aw crap", Nelson quickly unbuckled himself and pushed past Caleb to get to the pilots seat, after tapping a few symbols the small craft righted itself. Nelson turned to look at Caleb, "you really don't know what's down there do you?"

'No, all I know is that it's a planet.'

Nelson turned the chair around fully and took off his glasses, placing them on his lap.

"Caleb, that planet the site of the original xenomorph infestation, if we land there we're going to die."

**Caleb has officially fucked everyone over...shocker. So, tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could do better. This story can be largely affected by all you readers (mostly because I never plan more than three chapters ahead). And I cannot stress this enough, give a big round of applause for Strawberry. Also, because I am largely unused to working with a beta I really don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I am working as diligently as I can(this dumb school thing keeps getting in the way though). Oh and as a last thing, I havd exams last week but but I will have much more time to write (and play halo XD).**

**As always you guys and gals have the most wonderful time reading. Your all the best!**

**Sincerely,**

**The Fifty**


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